Prince Harry cuts up rough!

Prince Harry eating his boil-in-the-bag lunch in the desert in Helmand province in Afghanistan

I have spent all these years trying to teach Harry to eat with a knife and fork and there you are with him pulling apart meat with your hands

Prince Charles

The Prince of Wales joked that his son – a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan – prefers to tackle food with his hands.

Life in the Forces means Harry often has to eat with just a spoon.

Talking of a previous posting in the war-torn country, Charles said: “Harry was attached to the Gurkhas, for which I have been Commander-in-Chief for about 35 years.

“I was joking and said to them: ‘I have spent all these years trying to teach Harry to eat with a knife and fork and there you are with him pulling apart meat with your hands.’

“They were eating curried goat or something, I think.”

Harry, 28, is due back in the UK in the next two weeks after his second gruelling tour of ­Afghanistan.

He has been risking his life flying Apache helicopters in a string of daring missions.

We told yesterday how pals are plotting a non-stop drinkathon for the party-loving Prince.

They plan to help him get over the stress of his time in Afghan-istan, where he has been the Taliban’s top target, by downing schnapps with him at Alpine-themed Bodo’s Schloss club in Chelsea, west London.

Charles, 64, also told ITV’s This Morning how proud he was of the nation following last summer’s celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and Olympics.